Improvement in the manufacture of soap



UNITED STATES L. M. T. mom, or PARIS, FRANCE.

IMPROVEMENT m THEUMANUFA'CTURE OF SOAP.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,731, dated October21, 1862 To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS MARIE Tru'iorrrirn R101, of Paris, in theEmpire of France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inthe Manufacture of Soap and the Preparation of Materials for thePurpose; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the same.

In the manufacture of soap considerable portions of the oil or fat,consisting, principally, of

glycerine, will not combine with the alkali;

and hence cannot become saponified, but become refuse, wherebyconsiderablewaste of material is occasioned. Now,'acids, and sulphuricacids especially, have the property of attacking or acting on theglycerine of oil and fat rather than on the oleine and margarinethereof, and the principal object of the present invention is to treatmaterials intended for the manufacture of soap in such manner that everypart of the oil or fatty matter shall be used or rendered available inproducing the soap-that is to say, shall enter into the composition ofthe soap. For this purpose the oil, tallow, or fat which is to beemployed in the manufacture of the soap is first treated .with sulphuricacid or other acid,whereb y the glycerine contained in such oil or fat.is. rendered fit for or converted into a matter capable of combiningwith alkalies, and hence of being saponified, or, in other words, ofentering-intothe composition of the soap. This process may be describedas converting the glyceriue into a matter assimilable to oleine andmargarine, thereby bringing it into a condition in which it will combinewith alkali.

The soap is then manufactured by combining alkaline lyes' with the oil,tallow, or fatty matof the proportions may be calculated beforehand, soas. to get a desired effect) with an. oil. treated. by an acid that actson its glycerine, v

as aforesaid. A hot process may be used. This accelerates the mutualaction of the bodies; but, being more expensive, it is not recommendedfor oils. s Sulphuric acid is the agent mostlypreferred; This'acid forthe purpose of this invention. transforms theglycerine intosulpho-glyceric acid, which is a substance especially capable ofcombining with alkalies. The proportion of acid should dependon the oilor fat treated.

'A dose of six-thousandth parts is especially recommended for olive-oil;but for earth-nut oil and sesame-oil up to ten (or fifteen) thousandthparts may be used. All these parts are by weight. A soap may bemanufactured (the ingredients being prepared as described) with fromfour to ten per cent. of soda by the cold process. Tallow should befirst liquefied.

In proceedingto,describe, by way'of exam ple, one mode of performing theinvention, I Wish it to be understood that the proportions ofingredients, the degrees Baum, the mere details of performance, and theportions of time hereinafter mentioned maybe varied.

It is preferred to proceed thus: Suppose, for example, olive-oil is tobe treated. The oilis placed in a cylinder, vessel, or receiver fittedwith an agitator, and sulphuric acid at 66 Baum is added, a little at atime, till the whole dose of acid introduced equals sixthousandth parts(by weight) of the oil. The mixture'is then stirred for an hour, andcaustic lye at about 15 Baum-say about ten parts, by weight, of lye toone hundred parts, by weight, of oil--is then poured into the samevessel (or into a larger vessel, into which the mate;

rials are transferred.) In a quarter of an hour another and equal supplyof lye is to be added, and so on till there are two hundred pounds lyeto two hundred pounds oil. Then a fresh supply of two hundred pounds lyeat 15? is to be added, by forty pounds at a time, and the whole is to beleft at rest for about half an hour, and

stirred for a quarter of an hour, and so on till ciently set after eachbatch isintroduced be fore throwing in the next batchof forty pounds,When this part of the process iscompleted and the pasty. mass fullyprepared, it

:should be stirred in the receiver before drawing off, audit is thendrawn off into the frames or sesses through orifices in the receiver,the

upper orifices being opened first .on account of the denseness of thepaste. The pasty mass may remain for from ten to fifteen hours Iproduced, according to this invention, on logiin the frames, whichshould slope a little at bottom to run" off any lye yet remaining,though where rich olive-oil is used there will be no lye left to runoff. If the soap is to be mottled or marbled, that is next'performed,and in that case the English mode is adopted, and the soap is left forfour days in the frames before cutting it. It is then dried in the openair. For white soap the mass .may be. out after remaining from ten totwelve hours in the frames.

By adopting the means of manufacture here- I in described the degree ofthe alkalinity of the lye may be readily calculated, so as to produce asoap ready prepared for sale or consumption when withdrawn from theframes, as the lye only supplies, say, for example, the forty-five percent. of water required. Thus, for example, about two pounds threeounces oil and four pounds six ounces lye at 15 Baum, prepared with saltof soda of commerce at 80 Baum, would furnish upward of six pounds ofthe aforesaid pasty mass, yielding from four to five pounds soapcontaining ten per cent. soda.

Tallows, and mixtures of tallow and lard, may be treated according tothis invention, taking care to keep the fat at melting-point the wholetime, to render it sufficiently fluid. The lyes should be at the sametemperature as the fat, to prevent congelation at the time that themixing takes place, and the dose of acid may be increased to at leastone per cent. that is, one part, by weight, of acid to every hundredparts, by weight, of fatty matter.

Hard soaps may be manufactured with a variety of oils other thanolive-oil. Tallows and other fats, after being liquefied, may be treatedon this plan.

By the means described soaps may be manufactured in such manner thattheir composition-v3. 0., the relative proportions of the constituentsthat are to enter into their ultimate compositionmay be ascertained orsettled,

the soap being, so to speak, produced on what I hereinafter explain aslogical principles of manufacture. Y

I now proceed to furnish further details as to the best mode of carryingthe invention into effect.

' Sulphuric acid is recommended as the agent best adapted for thepurpose of acting on the glycerine. The proportions of sulphuric acidrecommended as best suited are from ten to thirty thousandth parts, byweight, of acid to one part, by weight, of the oil or fat, the precisequantity of acid to be used varying between these proportions, accordingto the nature of the oil or fat. The larger the quantity of glycerinecontained in. the oil or fat the larger must be the quantity of acidused. Whenthe fat or oil is treated with acetic acid, the glycerine isconverted into aceto-glyceric acic; when with hydrochloric acid, it isconverted into chloro-glyceric acid, and so on.

What I mean by saying that soaps'may be cal or rational principles ofmanufacture, is this: Hitherto in the manufacture of soap, as beforestated, a large proportion of the oil or fatnamely, the glycerinedid notenter into the composition of the soap, and as this portion was notdiscoverable before introducing the alkaline lyes it was, of course,impossible to ascertain how much of the oil or fat would be available,or would really enter into the composition of the soap whenmanufactured. Consequently there were no means of regulating theproportions of the ingredients of the lye beforehand, so as to get anydesired precise relative proportions of alkali and fatty or oily matterin the soap at the end of the operation, whereas by treating the oil orfat with acid, (before adding the alkaline lyes,) and thereby convertingits glycerine into a matter that will combine with alkali and producesoap, the quantity of available fat or oil will be known, and thus theexact proportions of the ingredients of the lye may be calculatedbeforehand, so as to arrive at any desired relative proportions ofingredients in the soap, according to the quality required, or use forwhich it may be intended. Soaps thus produced, whereof the ultimateproportions of ingredients intended to enter into their composition areknown and regulated before manufacture, are what I call rational soaps.

When hard and common domestic soaps are manufactured according to thisinvention, it is recommended that the soap should be subjected, aftermanufacture, to the following finishing or refining supplementaryprocess, which prevents rancidity and rectifies defects in manufacture.When the soap is duly produced, and after it has been withdrawn from thereceivers, then, about four or five days afterward, or, at all events,when saponification has completely ensued, it should be completelyimmersed in a saline solution at about 7 or 8 Baum, salt, and boiledtherein for four or five hours. 7

In the process previously described I have mentioned certain proportionsof ingredients, also certain degrees Baum and certain intervals of time;but these may, of course, be varied without departing from the principleof the process, which, apart from these details, may be described asconsisting in first subjecting the oil or fat to a preliminary treatment with sulphuric or other acid, to transform its glycerine into amatter capable of combining with the alkali used, (and of thuscontributing to the composition of the soap,) and then adding weak lyesprepared beforehand, according to the required proportions, such lyesbeing added to the oil or fat in portions or batches, instead of thewhole at one time, stirring the mixture after each such addition, andthen allowing it to rest after each such addition before proceedingto'introduce the next batch.

In the method of proceeding above described, according to which the oilor fat is 36,731 q is first treated with sulphuric or other acid, toconvert its glycerine, as aforesaid, and is then combined with alkalinelyes so as to produce the.

soap, it may be observed that the lyes are pre: pared beforehand withthe desired proportions of water, and as the water contained therein isthus supplied to the oil or fat the propor tionsof water to the lye haveonly to "be calculated beforehand, in order toobtain any requiredproportion of Water in the soap itself.

I have somewhat particularly referred to olive oil; but it must beunderstood. that the invention is equally applicable to other oils thathave been or may be used in the manufacture of soap as well as totallows and fats.

In treating tallow and other fats, which are in a solid, concrete, or,at least,viscous state, it is necessary first to reduce them, by theapplication of heat, to a condition of fluidity resembling that of oil,in which they are treated with the sulphuric or other acid, to converttheir glycerineinto a matter capable of saponification. p

Having now described the nature of the said invention, and in whatmanner the same may be performed, I declare that I claimmere addition ofalkaline lyes to such oils, and

especially by the particular mode of proceeding by cold process,hereinbefore described.

3. The mode herein described of manufacturing soap by a cold process, inwhich weak alkaline lyes are combined with olive or other oilspreviously treated with an acid, for the purpose of converting theirglycerine into a matter capable of. entering into the composition of thesoap.

4. The manufacturing of what is herein described as a rational soap,which may contain fromfour to ten per cent. soda, such soap beingprepared by a cold process, as described, and with ingredients theproportions of which may be regulated before manufacture. v

.5. The process herein described, in which tallows and fats reduced to aliquid or fluid state are treated with sulphuric or other acid, toconvert their glycerine into amatt'er capable of entering into thecomposition of the soap, and are afterward combined with weak alkalinelyes, soas to produce soap.

6. The manufacture of soap by means of oil or fat first treated withsulphuric or other acid,

(in such manner as to render the glycerine thereof capable-of enteringinto the composition of soap,) and then combined with weak alkaline lyeswhen a hot process is used.

7 The preparation of olive-oil for the manufacture of soap by coldprocess in so far as regards the treatment of such oil (before combining it with alkaline lyes) with sulphuric acid in the proportion ofsix-thousandth parts by weight of acid to one part by weight of oil.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification beforetwo subscribing witnesses.

RIOT.

